The Land of Knowledge

The Ruling on The Moustache

The trimming and shortening of the moustache has been emphatically mentioned in many narrations of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), as we have seen above, thus, there is no need to repeat these narrations.

The Hadiths from the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) mention two things:

Thus, all the Schools of Islamic law agree on the fact that, it is impermissible to leave the moustache in a way that it covers the upper lip, for it is against the Sunnah and unhygienic, especially when eating. It would be unlawful to grow a very long moustache, as is customary in many people.

Zayd ibn Arqam (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: Whosoever does not shorten his moustache is not one from us. (Sunan Tirmizi, no. 2761, Sunan Nasa`i, no. 14 and Musnad Ahmad, 4/366, and Imam al-Tirmizi classed it to be authentic).

Sayyiduna Abd Allah ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) used to trim or take from his moustache, and the friend of Allah (khalil), the Prophet Ibrahim (blessings be upon him) would also do the same. (Sunan Tirmizi, no. 2760 and Musnad Ahmad, 1/301)

However, the scholars differ as to whether it is better to shorten the moustache or remove it and shave it altogether.

The relied upon opinion in the Hanafi School is that, it is even better to remove one`s moustache, though the sunnah is achieved by shortening the it such that it no longer covers the upper lip.

Imam Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on him) states that the opinion of shaving off the moustache being a Sunnah, was chosen by many scholars. (Radd al-Muhtar)

Imam al-Tahawi said that it is a Sunnah to shave the moustache, and it is better than shortening it, affirming that this is the position of Abu Hanifa and both his main students (Allah have mercy on them). (See: Tahawi, Sharh Ma`ani al-Athaar, 4.229,

He also reported, with his authentic chains of transmission, that this was from the practice of great Companions, including Abd Allah ibn Umar, Abu Hurayra, Abu Sa`id al-Khudri, Abu Usayd al-Sa`idi, Rafi` ibn Khadij, Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Anas ibn Malik, and others. (ibid.)

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (Allah have mercy on him) used to shave his moustache, thus the Hanbali position is also similar to that of the Hanafis. The Maliki School states that the moustache should not be completely removed, rather only shortened. The Shafi`is also hold a similar view.